Unofficial translation by the Network in Solidarity with the People of Guatemala (NISGUA). You can find the original statement in Spanish further below.
ADH MARCHES ON: 19 years of struggle to defend our territory
This July 25, 2025, the PEOPLES’ ASSEMBLY OF HUEHUETENANGO FOR THE DEFENSE OF OUR TERRITORY AND FOR COMMUNITY AUTONOMY AND SELF-DETERMINATION (ADH) turns 19. This is a time to remember how our organization began, celebrate our achievements, commemorate the people who have contributed to our struggle, and prepare for new projects in the future.
ADH’s struggle began in 2006 when communities grew alarmed to learn that the Ministry of Energy and Mines and the federal government were granting licenses for mining exploration and exploitation in the territory of Huehuetenango. On July 25, 2006, five municipalities in Huehuetenango conducted the first good-faith community consultation–a procedure established in Convention 169 of the ILO–in all of Guatemala. Using participatory democracy, our communities exercised their right to vote for or against extractive companies that sought to destroy our precious natural resources. On that historic date, 28,965 people voted against mining in five municipalities: Colotenango, Concepción Huista, San Juan Atitán, Todos Santos Cuchumatán, and Santiago Chimaltenango. It is important to remember that, when the votes were tallied, only 50 were in favor of mining. The “NO” vote against extractive mining in the communities was overwhelming.
This victory was shouted aloud to the four cardinal directions of the five municipalities.
ADH is an organization dedicated to defending our territory, built on the wisdom of our grandmothers and grandfathers, based on the historical struggles of the Native Peoples, and affirmed by our customary laws. Initially, our name was the “Departmental Assemble of Huehuetenango against open-pit metal mining.” Subsequently, in a departmental assembly, the decision was made to change the name because the members wanted expand their focus beyond mining to include other extractive industries, such as hydroelectric dams. We have partnered with social and environmental organizations, municipal authorities, COCODEs (community development councils), COMUDEs (municipal development councils), community or ancestral authorities, and other community and religious leaders, to defend our territory.
ADH has spent the last 19 years accompanying the struggle of our communities in Huehuetenango. In 30 of the 33 municipalities in the department of Huehuetenango, we have carried out good-faith community consultations, the results of which have been in favor of protecting natural resources–that is, against the irrational exploitation of natural resources, whose main objective is for companies to accumulate capital.
We have achieved four municipal water protection agreements in San Pedro Necta, Santiago Chimaltenango, San Ildefonso Ixtahuacán, and Aguacatán, two of which have been written about in the Diario de Centro América. We are stopping national and transnational extractive companies; there is no longer mining or hydroelectric dams in Huehuetenango. The World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank have publicly withdrawn from the department.
Our 19 years of existence have not been without difficulties. Private companies, always ready to sack our resources, in cahoots with the federal government, persist in their efforts to reactivate their licenses and install projects in the territory of Huehuetenango by unleashing a fierce wave of criminalization against communities and their leadership. In this sense, we have suffered threats and intimidation, such as arrest warrants that have landed us unfairly in jail. And as if this weren’t bad enough, several community leaders who have fought to defend our territory have lost their lives at the hands of government security forces and thugs hired by companies that enjoy total impunity in the country.
Then again, sometimes our efforts and our struggles have not been successful because of opposition from municipal mayors and national congressmen. The congressman had in their hands–and rejected, back in 2016-18–the Water Law bill, known as 5070, presented by the Native Peoples of western Guatemala. Currently that bill is as good as dead in the Congress of the Republic.
Finally, over these 19 years, we have lost beloved comrades, such as Rubén Herrera, Andrés Pedro Miguel, and our comrade Professor Daniel Pedro, all of whom we remember with the fondest appreciation. Their clear vision, their tenacity, their steadfastness, and their examples are a shining light that guides us in our journey.
Nothing has stopped us and nothing ever will. Hand in hand with our ancestors and our dead, we continue creating life, reconstructing and defending our territories, building our autonomy, and promoting community self-determination.
At present, we are promoting municipal water protection agreements in five more municipalities of Huehuetenango. We continue organizing community structures to defend our territory and running awareness campaigns at the community and municipal levels. ADH’s actions and experiences of serve as an example for other municipalities, departments of the country, and even for other sister countries around the world.
We are infinitely grateful to those who share the strategic struggle that ADH leads together with our communities to defend our territory. Our achievements have been possible thanks to you, and we hope you continue to accompany us in this fight for many more years.
POWER COMES NOT FROM THE GOVERNMENT BUT FROM THE PEOPLE.
WITHOUT GOLD, WE CAN LIVE!!!
WITHOUT WATER, WE DIE!!!
Sincerely, the Board of Directors of ADH
San Rafael Pétzal, territory of K’aib’il B’alam on July 25, 2025.
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